


The Savage Play

by ChillyJackal



Series: Zootopia Oddities AU [8]
Category: Zootopia
Genre: Gen, Horror, lovecraft, play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:36:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillyJackal/pseuds/ChillyJackal
Summary: An officer in the ZPD is given the chance to watch an obscure play with his partner, but starts to have second thoughts when he finds out the play has a very unusual and dark history...





	The Savage Play

Another long day of protecting and serving the citizens of Zootopia had come to it's relieving end. Marcus Digg took a long sip of his cheap coffee as he and his partner waited for the clock on his dashboard radio to hit quitting time. The meerkat had been working in the ZPD for years now, and the last half-hour of his shift always seemed to drag on the longest. His partner, a kangaroo, was tapping away at her phone when she cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Hey Marcus, you like theater?"

He was caught off guard by this sudden question.

"I kinda was in like, High School, why?"

She smiled and held up her phone, he could see some sort of announcement plastered on a poorly made website. It was clearly one of those cheap public sites designed by someone who just heard websites were popular and threw one together.

"LIVE THIS WEEKEND ONLY AT THE PINECROSS THEATER, COME SEE A ONCE IN A LIFETIME PERFORMANCE OF THE CLASSIC SHOW: THE SAVAGE PLAY."

He couldn't help but furrow his brow a bit as he thought back to his four year stint in theater classes in some vain attempt to recall this particular title. Karen could hardly hold back her laughter as she caught on to the fact that he was struggling very quickly.

"It's okay if you've never heard of it Marcus, it's kind of obscure even by performance standards."

"You into theater stuff Karen?"

"Oh yeah, I grew up watching plays with my family and going on school trips to see all sorts of performances."

He felt a bit bad, the pair had never really talked about their hobbies unless they were particularly bored. They'd been working together for a while now but most of their time together was stopping crime or giving out tickets, these long thirty minutes before quitting time were some of the few opportunities they had to actually talk like friends instead of co-workers.

"So, I'm guessing you wanna go see it?"

"Of course, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to see it with me."

The meerkat swallowed a mouthful of coffee nervously and kept silent as he thought about it. Maybe they'd known eachother long enough that this kind of thing was okay, he was only taking her to a play after all. He suddenly remembered a very important detail he'd skimmed over while reading the garish website, the location of the venue. He wasn't as well versed in theater as he was in school but something he was more than aware of was dangerous locations.

"Isn't Pinecross that run down place in Happy Town? Is that really the safest place to hold some big fancy play?"

"Oh crap, I didn't even think about that. You think maybe we should check the place out before we get tickets?"

She was assuming he was going whether he answered yes or not, it was probably for the best really. He wasn't sure he could work up the courage to just say it himself.

"Sounds like a plan. They'll probably want some kinda police presence for the actors anyways. I'll talk to Bogo about it tomorrow."

The two of them sat there in silence for a few more minutes before the alarm on Karen's phone made them both jump, quitting time had arrived at last. Marcus laughed nervously and gave Karen a big grin.

"Ha ha, lost track of time."

"Heh, yeah. You gonna drive me home tonight?"

He nodded and started up the car, dropping off the kangaroo off in the Rainforest District before heading back to his small apartment in Sahara Square. He'd need to wash the car down later, if Bogo saw the mud all over the cruiser he'd get an earful again. He quickly remembered why he usually let Karen keep the car between shifts.

 

After spending his morning washing the cruiser and doing some extra paperwork for Bogo, Marcus let out an audible sigh as he plopped down in the passenger's seat, Karen chuckling as she gave him a pat on the head. 

"Good work this morning slugger, ready to check out the theater?"

He nodded and laid back in the seat as she started the car and drove through the city while he closed his eyes in some attempt to rest, some time to slack off after the extra work. He grumbled when he felt the car come to a complete stop again as they arrived at their destination.

"You still good to go in sleepyhead?"

"Sure. Lemme get a good stretch in first."

Marcus let out a yawn as he pushed the door open lazily and hopped out, Karen close behind as they walked through the run down streets of Happy Town and up the steps of the Pinecross. The building wasn't in the best condition, even compared to the places around it, and the idea of such a rare play would be presented there seemed very unusual.

After showing their badges to the single security guard at the door and explaining the reason for their visit, they made their way into the halls of the theater and made their way to the venue. A deer woman outside stopped them from entering.

"Hol' up there officers. You guys like, have a pass or somethin'?"

"We're here to check on the production and make sure the theater is safe, you guys didn't exactly choose a very good place for a show."

She shrugged, he could tell she was chewing gum as she spoke. 

"Director likes old buildings I guess. I expected to be called down to the place in downtown when they were lookin' for volunteers."

She finally stood aside and ushered the two in, they were immediately greeted with a scene of mammals working meticulously on setpieces and lighting. Marcus had to stand back as the tallest maned wolf he'd ever seen cast a shadow over his small body, wearing a bright yellow suit that looked like it belonged in a commercial for a used car lot and equally gaudy trousers.

"Welcome, I was told over the phone that the ZPD would be visiting the stage of Walter Caruso, but I wasn't given much detail as to why."

He spoke in a very polite and refined manner, and his stiff movements made Marcus feel just the tiniest bit uncomfortable. Everything about the mammal besides his strange outfit gave an impression of calm and control. Karen cleared her throat before replying.

"Well, Mr. Caruso, I'm officer Karen and this is Marcus. We noticed that you decided to have the show here in the Pinecross, and it's our duty as officers to-"

"Ensure the local ruffians don't interfere, am I correct?"

She closed her mouth awkwardly and nodded.

"My dear officers, the entire point of this production is to give back to the poor and unfortunate, those who would normally never see such a rare and obscure performance, all of our workers are volunteers and all of the proceeds will be going into restoring this theater."

Caruso stopped suddenly as he caught something out the corner of his eye, spinning around and pointing at a silver fox who was painting a fake pillar.

"Ms. Houston!"

Her ears twitched as she slowly turned to look back at him.

"Uh, yeah boss?"

"Please fix the line you just painted over, everything must be absolutely precise, every detail, every stroke of paint, every stitch in the costumes, we want this to be a perfect performance."

The silver fox gave a confused nod before fixing the line, looking back at the maned wolf as he gave her an approving nod. Marcus was a bit surprised that an event with nothing but volunteer workers and probably actors of similar caliber was running so smoothly and with such tight control, like a well oiled machine with a cracking shell over it.

"Well uh, it looks like you've got everything under control here Mr. Caruso, I'm sorry if we ended up intruding a bit ourselves."

"Nonsense sir, as director and lead actor it's my job to keep everything here in perfect order and take every possible scenario into account to ensure a successful show. A show which I hope you two will be here to enjoy as well."

He waved his hand, two tickets sliding from under his sleeve and into his paw, which were quickly handed to the pair. 

"Consider this a gift, and a thank you for your interest in protecting our production. We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labour when they've become ripe."

Marcus could only nod as both he and Karen wandered out into the halls and then back to the cruiser, where they were attempting to digest exactly what just happened.

"So, did that seem weird to you or was it just me?"

Marcus looked to Karen, who was staring at her ticket with glee.

"What do you mean weird? He's just trying to give a good performance for mammals in need, that's honestly pretty nobel of him don't you think?"

"I mean, I suppose so, but my gut is telling me something is up."

The kangaroo frowned and put her ticket away as she turned the cruiser on. He knew Karen didn't feel the same thing he did, that weird uncomfortable feeling that was coming off Caruso the entire time they were talking with him. The way he moved, and spoke, and the intense air of total control that he gave made the mammal anxious up until they were away from the theater. 

"You're probably just off because you had to work more this morning Marcus, let's go get some lunch before we head back to work okay?"

"You're probably right, feel like cheap take-out today?"

Karen laughed as she pulled out of the parking space and started off towards downtown, Marcus's eyes focused on the ticket as he made a mental plan to himself. Why exactly was this play so obscure, why did its' director decide to have it shown in such a derelict space, and why was his gut giving him serious warning signs that something awful was about to happen? 

"Uh, I'm gonna do some research on it."

"What?"

"The play, curious about what it's like y'know?"

"Stretching the old theater bones Marcus?"

"Yeah, something like that."

 

The rest of the week was a blur of traffic stops, a robbery attempt, and large stacks of paperwork. Marcus only had a night to really pull together a haphazard attempt at studying the obscure play. A majority of the information he could find gave very little information on the contents of the play itself, only referencing it's obscurity and how it was rarely shown, dates between shows decades apart. 

"You'd think there'd be some big shot critic or someone who's at least seen this thing and talked about it at some point, so where the heck are the reviews?"

He let out a sigh as he scrolled further down the limited results, one of the websites managing to catch his eye.

"The Bloody History Of The Savage Play?"

He clicked the link and rolled his eyes as he was greeted with a black background and red Chiller font. 

"I thought the Pinecross had a bad site, this is just plain sad."

If he hadn't exhausted his other leads, if he could even call them that, he'd just click off the page right there. He never believed in all the nonsense about conspiracy theories, ghosts, cryptids, ghost stories in general. Still, he soldiered on and scrolled down the page to see exactly what the "Bloody History" behind the play was.

"First showing in the 1600s, the play has three acts but no showing has ever made it past the second. There have been very few attempts to put on the play as each attempt has ended with tragedy and death?"

This was new, none of the other websites had even attempted to bring this up. He kept scrolling, finding a list with documented showings of the production and tragedies that occurred during them.

1690 Account: Very few texts could be found on this event, but the few that were gave conflicting accounts of what exactly happened. Witness testimoney ranged from an attack by foreign invaders who had hidden in the crowd to sudden onset mass hysteria.

1720 Account: Letters and documents from this era regarding the play had been found in the archives of the Zootopian Museum of Natural History. The letters spoke of a terrible blaze that broke out in the middle of the show, killing at least 20 mammals. Some of the witnesses claimed that some of the audience members set the fires themselves in a bizarre act of anarchy during the show.

1850 Account: Multiple newspaper reports and clippings of the great 1850 Riot that broke out in Old Zootopia at the time. Mammals began brawling and fighting in the streets for seemingly no reason resulting in mass casualties. Playbills from around the same time showed that The Savage Play was being performed in a theater located within the general area where the riot was rumored to have begun.

1990 Account: News reports about a disastrous concert by then up and coming rap artist Flint "Preddyboy" Casket, who was rumored to have incorporated verses and visuals from the play into his newest song "Go Savage". During his performance a fight broke out in the audience that erupted into a full-scale brawl similar to the 1850 incident. Police arrived only to end up being caught in the chaos resulting in over 100 casualties, though some mammals say the actual death toll was higher.

As Marcus read over the paragraphs before him he felt the sweat starting to drip down his forehead. He doubled back to Zoogle and typed in each of the incidents mentioned on the site, horrified when he saw that each one had in fact been all too real. 

"But, none of these articles even mention the play. Why?"

The meerkat leaned forward and rested his head in his paws, stopping to take stock of all the information he'd barely managed to scrounge up on a production he was seeing in less than 24 hours. On the one hand, the tragedies surrounding each attempt to revive the play were real, on the other there were perfectly reasonable explanations for each of them.

Unruly crowds, civil disobedience, mass hysteria and possibly the involvement of alcohol, especially in the older entries. The entire thing was making his brain run wild with speculation and anxiety for the following night. He couldn't help but think about the Nighthowler attacks a year or two prior to this as well, it was more than possible that some kind of group could use the play as an excuse to commit some sort of terrorist act. He groaned and gave himself a light smack on the face to wake up.

"No, we can handle this, we're officers."

He took a breath and shook himself out of his anxious haze.

"We'll go to the show, and if anyone tries anything funny we'll arrest them on the spot. Yeah, keep it clean and make sure everyone has a good time."

Marcus smiled, the gnawing voice at the back of his mind quieted by what he figured was a perfectly reasonable compromise.

 

The shift before the big night was completely uneventful, which Marcus considered a blessing since even after assuring himself the night before that things would be fine he still had a sinking feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. The feeling only intensified as he rushed down the steps to the driveway when Karen finally arrived to pick him up for showtime. He had to dig deep into his closet to find a suit that would even seem remotely suitable for a fancy stageplay, and even then he didn't have time to iron it out. 

"Geeze Marcus, were you dry cleaning the suit yourself up there? We're gonna be late."

"Sorry, sorry. Had to find the stupid tie."

He grumbled as they drove to the theater and spent some time trying to find a parking space in the crowded street outside the Pincecross. The promise of a free show had unsurprisingly brought out a large chunk of the lower income population in Happy Town to indulge. After finally managing to find a space the two of them made their way indoors and took their seats. Marcus' eyes wandered and scanned over the stage and surroundings before them, noticing a few machines and devices he hadn't noticed when they visited a few days prior. 

"Nice, they installed fog machines and speakers. When we went to this place in college they had to rent them from other places anytime they showed anything."

Whatever anxiety Marcus felt, Karen was clearly immune to it. She was ready for a show and he found himself feeling a bit guilty that he wasn't in the same high spirits she was. His worries began to relax however when the lights dimmed and the curtains lifted on a beautiful set, some sort of castle or ballroom with architecture the meerkat had never seen before. His focus on the stage was interrupted when he saw the thin looming form of Caruso make its way on stage in a brilliant cloak befitting the fairytale like world of the play. He grabbed the microphone and spoke in the same calm manner he had when they first met him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to bring you a very special show, a massive collaboration between the volunteers of the Zootopian Theatrical Society and the people of Zootopia as a whole." 

He raised his arms as he continued to speak, as if trying to make sure every eye in the audience was on him as he spoke, which they were.

"With your funding and our hard work we are ready to present to you the very play my father, grandfather, and grandfathers before him had written to enchant and amaze mammals like yourselves."

Marcus felt his entire body go cold, Caruso hadn't mentioned that the play was written by his family when they met, it hadn't even occurred to him that such a thing was even possible.

"We present to you, people of Happy Town, The Savage Play!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as the curtains closed again, opening back to reveal a number of actors as the play began. Marcus took a deep breath and tried to take in the beauty of the set design and costumes to get his mind off his worries. 

"Wait a minute, what is...?"

He hadn't gotten a proper look at the set while it was being made, but now that he did he could see all sorts of strange symbols and drawings covering them, as his eyes took in the images his worries and anxiety only intensified. Something was wrong, very wrong. He jumped a bit when Karen leaned over to whisper something to him.

"I'm shocked they got all of this done in a week, it's so magical."

"Ha, yeah, Caruso must be a really good director..."

He sat through the rest of act one without further comment, trying to focus on the plot and acting rather than his own worrying. After the intermission he had a few minutes to relax and gather his thoughts, trying to take stock of his surroundings as the infamous second act was going to begin very soon. Most of the people in the audience were families and the elderly, a few students who clearly came from downtown and a couple reviewers scribbling notes down in their books. 

"No one here that would have a reason to riot or fight, maybe this time will be different than the others?"

The lights dimmed again and Marcus felt his ears twitch as he caught the sound of the fog machines kicking on while the curtains raised on a different set, consisting of strange stone structures covered in even more of the symbols that were bothering him. Something else had caught his attention as well, the smell from the fog.

"Wait, could it be?"

His heart raced as he took a few sniffs to be sure, he couldn't be entirely sure, but he swore it smelled like...

"Nighthowler!"

"What?"

"Karen, we need to leave, now."

"Marcus are you insane!?"

She took deep breaths of the air before glaring at him, trying her best to keep her voice down as she chastized him.

"It's just some aromatherapy crap Marcus! Look, everyone is perfectly fine!"

"I, I'll be right back then."

Marcus coughed and walked out into the hallway, feeling embarrassed and humiliated for having a panic attack over what was essentially flower scented fog. As he leaned against the wall and muttered angrily at himself he suddenly heard a scream from the theater, followed by a nearly deafening cacophony of screams following it.

"What the hell!?"

He cursed himself as he reached down for his radio, only to remember he was too busy rushing to get ready to bring the thing. He pushed open the doors, eyes widening in horror at the sight before him. All of the mammals in the theater had begun attacking and clawing at eachother, going completely savage right there and ripping eachother to shreds. On the stage, he could see Caruso standing there with a bizarre mask on, barely moving or even reacting to the chaos before him.

"He knew this was going to happen, he planned this all!"

Marcus struggled to get past the savage crowd, making it onto the stage and grabbing a prop sword in some attempt to have a weapon to confront the larger predator with.

"What did you do!?"

"Act three is always so beautiful, isn't it Mr. Diggs?"

He got closer with the sword, glaring at Caruso and getting angrier as he looked at the disgusting mask he'd been wearing. The twisted and horrible face made it hard to make any sort of eye contact with the mammal as he just stared down at the meerkat with apathy.

"That's enough! There's no way this isn't going to get attention from the ZPD. I don't know how you did it but I'll keep you here until they arrive so they can find out, now put your hands up, and take off that stupid mask!"

Caruso let out a hearty laugh as he leaned down closer to Marcus.

"My dear Marcus, I don't think you understand."

His voice was quiet and barely above a whisper, but even with the chaos around them it was still all too clear enough for the meerkat to hear.

"I wear no mask."

 

As the police surrounded the theater, Judy Hopps found herself stepping out of her car with Nick close behind. Some mammals outside heard the rioting going on inside the theater and had called them as soon as they could. Multiple mammals were being wheeled out strapped to gurney's, most of them screeching and screaming in a savage state or horribly wounded from the sudden incident. Judy could've sworn she saw Officer Karen screaming and kicking as they wheeled her into an ambulance as well. 

"Cheese and crackers, what on earth caused this?"

She pushed through the mess of broken chairs and sections of wall torn out by claws as she got closer to the stage, which was strangely unscathed from the conflict. As she examined the still pristine set she could hear someone muttering to themselves and turned to see a meerkat curled up in the corner of the stage, covering his face with his paws.

"Officer Diggs!? Marcus!"

She ran over and tried to help him up, only for him to slap her hand away, still muttering and gibbering to himself.

"What happened? Marcus, what's going on?"

She got as close as she could and tried to listen to his whimpering, finally making something out.

"No mask, no mask, no mask."


End file.
